tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76674674523103400202017-10-13T01:48:05.820-07:00Ev'ry Depth of Good and IllPastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-7572668464472434502014-10-01T21:48:00.000-07:002014-10-01T21:48:26.843-07:00Original Sin<span style="font-size: large;">"I've been searching for an original sin,</span><div><span style="font-size: large;">One with a twist and a bit of a spin.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">And since I've done all the old ones</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">'til they've all been done in...</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Endlessly searching for an original sin."&nbsp;</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">- Jim Steinman</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">There is no such thing, of course, as an "original" sin, in that sense of the word. Every wicked thing under the sun that could be done by man has been done - social media and instant communication simply means that we see man's wicked deeds instantly. But we just keep doing the same old things. And we will - on and on - until the final day.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">There is, however, such a thing as Original Sin. It is the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve that we have all inherited and in which we all take part. Original Sin is the death sentence of the human race. It is the total corruption that has destroyed the image of God in us. We are conceived and born in Original Sin. It is what makes us commit all manner of Actual Sins of wicked thoughts, words, and deeds - harming our neighbor and harming ourselves.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Sometimes I wonder if we really believe in Original Sin. Do we really believe what God's holy Word says about us? That is, after all, what confessing God's Word is all about - we say back to God what God says about Himself and what He says about us. Do we really believe that we are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins? Do we really believe that we are by nature spiritually blind, dead, and enemies of God? My guess is that we don't. Not really.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">We adhere to the belief that we are good. Our default position is that we are basically good people. We are good people who - if left to our own devices - make good choices and do good things. But this is not true. Even St. Paul told us that the evil he did not want to do - that is what he did. And the good that he wanted to do - he could not accomplish it. How much more true is that for you and me?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">We are dead. We are dead in our trespasses and sin. Original Sin and all the Actual Sins we commit every moment of every day have killed us. Who will save us from this body of death?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Thanks be to God that we have a Savior who took upon Himself all of our sin and all of our death. He took them into His holy, perfect, and deathless body and He became sin for us - for all of fallen humanity! We cannot choose God anymore than a dead man can choose to be alive. But God chose us in Christ before the foundations of the world were laid. He put all of your sin and all of your death into the sinless one who is true God and true Man.&nbsp;</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;">Only in Jesus are you made alive. Only in Jesus are your Original Sin and all of your Actual Sins covered by the righteousness that comes from outside of you, making you alive! &nbsp;</span></div>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-10975295187094141022013-08-26T19:16:00.000-07:002013-08-26T19:34:39.477-07:00Sermon for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost<br /><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 15px;"></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">The 14th Sunday after Pentecost<br />St. Luke 13:22-30/25 August 2013<br />Gloria Dei Lutheran Church of Chicago</span></b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span><br /></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the Holy Name of Jesus. Amen.</span></b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is always a risky thing asking Jesus a question, because His answer will always be more than you could have possibly imagined. In the Gospel reading for this morning, our Lord had just finished teaching about the Kingdom of God, and had started journeying toward Jerusalem, through the cities and villages, making His way toward His own suffering, Cross, and Death. That is exactly where all His teaching about the Kingdom of God would find its fulfillment - that is where the Kingdom of God would be me made manifest - upon the Cross of Calvary.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And in one of these villages, someone asks Him, <i>“Lord, are the ones being saved, few?”</i> In other words, <i>“Are only a few going to enter the Kingdom of God, of which you speak?”</i> Who will be there? Will there be many or will there be few in the Kingdom of God? It is a bold question. But, as I said, asking Jesus a question is always a risky thing, for you never know the answer you might get.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jesus answers, but not the way one would think He might. He tells them to be concerned about themselves entering the Kingdom of God, not the number of the saved. He tells them, <i>“Struggle to enter through the narrow door, because many will seek to enter and will not be able.”</i>&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Struggle. It’s not an easy thing being a Christian. It is the narrow door - and struggling through a narrow door is a difficult thing. It is the narrow door of putting away all of our idols, the narrow door of turning away from our favorite sins, the narrow door of repentance, the narrow door of every day picking up our crosses and struggling and striving - despairing of our own ability to save ourselves and putting all of our hope for the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ alone.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> But that is what it means to be a Christian: and do you know something - sometimes I hardly have the energy for it. It is not a bunch of platitudes and New Age, Self Help nonsense. It is not “Living Your Best Life Now,” or “40 Days of Purpose,” or a get rich quick scheme. It is the Narrow Door of faith in Christ Alone. It is a struggle. It is hard and it is draining to live the Christian Life which our Lord has called us to in our Baptism into Him. But it is what Jesus says it is - striving to enter the Kingdom of God by the Narrow Door, and that Narrow Door is nothing more or less than Jesus alone.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And left on our own, we would be lost. Left on our own to struggle and strive to find the Kingdom of God would leave us facing the shut door and saying, “<i>Lord, open to us,”</i> and hearing the response, <i>“I do not know where you came from.”</i> The Law is perfect and requires perfection. Yet, in our sin and rebellion against our Creator we fall short every second of every day. All of our good works, all of our righteousness, cannot get us through the Narrow Door.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Those who fit through the Narrow Door are those who despair over their sin and know that they in themselves have no good thing - that they claim no righteousness of their own. The works they do in the world are left behind, in service to their neighbors, but not carrying them through the Door. Through the Narrow Door they carry nothing, but instead are carried by Christ Himself through the Narrow Door.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So our "striving" and our “struggling” is really nothing more than trusting in Christ alone and HIS perfect work already accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection. And our trusting rests upon the faith bestowed upon us by God's grace through the work of the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament.&nbsp;</span></span><br /><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">That is the actual stuff of the Christian Faith: Word, Baptism, Eucharist, Forgiveness, and trust in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection alone.&nbsp; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Narrow Door is Jesus Christ. The Narrow Door is receiving His divine forgiveness through the saving Sacrament of Holy Baptism and Jesus’ very Body and Blood for forgiveness of sin.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Today, we open our Lutheran Parish School for its 53rd Academic Year. We also install Mrs. Margaret Smith as teacher in our school and celebrate Mr. Scott Schilling’s teaching in our school for 30 of those 53 years. A lot has changed in those 53 years, indeed, in those 30 years. The make-up of our student body, the cost of operating a Lutheran School, the way Lutheran Schools are funded, and much more. What, of course, does not change is the Lord who bids us, <i>“Struggle to enter by the narrow door of Faith!” “Strive to enter the Kingdom of God by the only way you can - the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ!”</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That saving doctrine of salvation through Jesus Christ alone for sinners through the Holy Word and Sacraments is the message that all of our faculty teaches and that Mr. Schilling, as teacher and principal, has taught here for 30 and more years.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>When Mr. Schilling was installed here on September 11, 1983, there was a brief note in the bulletin that read, <i>“Scott Douglas Schilling will be inducted as Teacher of grades 5 and 6 of our Lutheran Day School. We pray the Lord bless him and his association with us.”</i> I think we can say, after 30 years, that the Lord has positively answered that prayer and blessed Mr. Schilling’s association with our Church and School.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The Old Testament reading read on that Sunday, 30 years ago, was from the Book of Proverbs, chapter 9, and contains the verse inscribed on the outside of our school building, <i>“Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser, teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”</i> I hope you sometimes stop to look at and ponder those words.<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Fear is reverence. The reverence of the LORD that Mr. Schilling teaches the students here is the beginning of true wisdom - not worldly wisdom - true wisdom - wisdom in Christ alone. Whether or not they become wiser still after they leave this place - whether they increase in learning - depends upon their striving in their Christian life to enter by the Narrow Door of Faith in Christ or follow the broad and easy way of the world - many do that, to their own harm.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But here in this place, Mr. Schilling and all our teachers have taught and still teach that saving message to the children of our parish school: the Message that there is a Door: a narrow Door to be certain, but a gracious, forgiving, and saving Door to the very Kingdom of God. That Door is Jesus Christ alone. And He calls you from the east and the west, from the north and the south - to sit down with Him in the Kingdom of God. Hear and heed that gracious and life-giving invitation. &nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the Holy Name of Jesus. Amen.</span></b></span></div><br /><br /><br />Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-47793707338652186172012-05-06T10:43:00.000-07:002012-05-06T10:43:14.598-07:00Sermon for Easter 5 St. John 15:1-8<br /><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">This Sunday and the for the next two we shall concentrate on this all important topic that the Gospel presents to us this morning - the Word of God. This morning we hear our Lord speaking, “You are already clean because of the Word I have spoken.”&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">Jesus says this in the context of one of His “I AM” statements. Like last weeks, “I AM the Good Shepherd,” this week we hear, “I AM the true Vine.” If a branch is not producing good fruit it is cut off of the vine. This was the problem of the Jews of Jesus’ day. They were not producing the fruits of faith. And so the warning is clear and unambiguous - they will be cut off. To be cut off from the Vine is to therefore not have life - it is to wither away. It ends with being thrown into the fire and burned - destruction - hell. Such is the end of those who have been freely attached to the Vine that is Christ but refuse to - will not bring forth the fruits that should should naturally flow when one is attached to Him.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">But this does not mean that those attached branches who do bring forth the fruits of faith go untouched. Jesus says that that branch is pruned, or perhaps more accurately “cleaned” so that it will be even more fruitful and bear even more of the fruit of faith. He tells the disciples, “You are already pruned/clean because of the Word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you.”&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">There are all manner of ways in which our Lord prunes us in this lifetime. And the fact is that don’t like that very much. We don’t like it when our Lord takes to pruning us - to cleaning us. Because from our vantage point, the Lord’s pruning is really only just pain and suffering. Look at how the Lord pruned Job. He stripped him of everything - took everything from him - his cattle, his wealth, his health, his children. It certainly did not look to Job like the Lord was pruning him - cleansing him - to bring forth even greater fruits of faith. When he was in the midst of it - it only looked like pain - like sorrow - like suffering. But the Lord is always the Lord. And all things are always in His hands. We cannot accept only things as blessings that we love, that we enjoy, that give us pleasure. As those who belong to Christ and know salvation in Him through suffering and the cross, we must also accept those things as blessings that neither look nor feel to us like blessings at all.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">But for Job, as for the disciples, as for you - it is ultimately the Word of Jesus that prunes - that makes clean. The Word that Jesus speaks - the Word you hear - is that which keeps you connected to the true Vine that is Jesus. That Word is always a blessing. That Word is always life. That Word always cleanses you. That Word is what brings forth from you much fruit showing you to be a disciples of Jesus the true Vine.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">Jesus is not only your “justification,” that is, the One Who by His life, death and resurrection makes you just and right - able to stand before the Holy God spotless and clean, covered in His own righteousness. He is also your “sanctification,” that is, the One Who dwells in you through Baptism and Holy Communion and brings forth all good works from you every day in all of your different vocations. Whatever you do as a Christian, from the smallest act to the greatest, is a good fruit of faith before God, because it is Jesus in you producing such fruit.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">St. Paul says as much when he writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” What a branch that is connected to this true Vine brings forth - it brings forth because it is connected to this True Vine. What you as a Christian do in service to your neighbor because of Christ is done because you are connected to Christ and He lives in you through the cleansing Word and He works in and through you.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">So remain in Jesus and in His Word. That is to the Father’s Glory, after all. Continue to hear it proclaimed to you. Continue to receive it in and with His Body and His Blood. Have the confidence that whatever pruning/cleansing might come to you, you need not fear it, for you have been cleansed by the Word - the Word of Christ.&nbsp;</span></span></div>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-4686650721425952422012-04-29T21:52:00.000-07:002012-04-29T21:52:38.517-07:00Sermon for Easter 4 - St. John 10:11-18<br /><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">What exactly is it that makes something “good”? Is there an objective standard that you can measure something against to declare it without any doubt to be ‘good’? What makes a movie good, for example? Is it ‘good’ because you enjoyed the story? Is it good because it made you cry or laugh? Those are very personal, subjective measurements. Perhaps the movie is ‘good’ because it had ‘good’ performances. But then we are right back to the question of what is it that makes the performances ‘good.’ Ultimately, it seems that it is always personal opinions that determine what is ‘good.’</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">At a more personal level, we might ask: What makes a ‘good’ father? Is a father ‘good’ if he watches the children now and then, plays with them, and provides for them financially? Is he still a ‘good’ father if he is not married to his children’s mother and lives apart from them? Is part of being a ‘good’ father that a man honors the commitment to the family blessed by God called marriage? Can that be declared to be an objective standard by which we can measure a father to be ‘good’? Is there ever any objective measurement to determine when something is ‘good’ or is it all purely subjective?</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">How about when Jesus calls something ‘good’? When Jesus says something is ‘good,’ He is not making a subjective statement or merely giving a personal opinion of whether or not He thinks something is nice or pleasant. When Jesus says ‘good’ He means something very objective and concrete. He is making a declaration that the thing is morally pure, free from defect, perfect for its intended purpose. It is objectively beneficial, salutary, pure, and right.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">The problem of humankind - of you and me - is that we are not good. You are not good. And that is hard to hear and even harder to bear. It is the Law of God and the Law always accuses of our sin, which we do not like. And, not only do we not like it, but it flies in the face of the entire “self-esteem” industry that sells books and DVD’s, holds conferences and promotes pricey motivational speakers telling people exactly that they are inherently good, moral, pure, and upright. And the reason people are told this over and over again is so that they will come to believe it, because intrinsically, deep down, they know that it is a lie. People are willing to pay in order to be told that they are good. They so desperately want to hear the lie over the truth.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">Because what you know is true about yourself is that what comes from you - from your heart - is not good. Your gossip is not good. Your hatred is not good. Your self-righteousness is not good. Your lust is not good. Your lying to your husband, your unfaithfulness to your wife, your disobedience toward your parents, your self-excused stealing from others, your rampant idolatry of things and leisure, your indifference to injustice, your greed, your despising Christ’s Sacrament and Word. None of this is ‘good,’ no matter how you dress it up in robes of your own righteousness.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">Jesus declares, “I AM the Good Shepherd.” Jesus alone is morally pure, free from defect, perfect for the intended purpose for which His Father sent Him. And He says what that purpose is three times in the Gospel: “The Good Shepherd lays down His life... My life I lay down... I lay down My life.” There is the purpose of His coming in a nutshell: He Who is truly, absolutely Good came into this fallen world to lay down His life in the dust of sin and death for you who are not at all good. He lay it down, taking upon Himself all the badness that dwells in you - taking upon Himself all the badness and the sin of this bad and sinful world.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">He Who is truly, absolutely Good came to rescue you from the ravening maws of the wolves of your enemies - you who rightly deserve to be chewed up by those monstrous jaws and teeth. That is why Jesus is the Shepherd Who is called ‘Good,’ and who is ‘good.’&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">He is no hireling who runs away in the face of your enemies: the wolves of sin, death and hell, who so gleefully would destroy you. No, this Good Shepherd stays and dies for His flock - for you. And not only does this ‘Good’ Shepherd lay down His life for you, willing giving His throat to the jaws of the wolves in your place, but He takes it up again, “I have power to take it again.” And taking it up again, He slays those wolves for you so that you need not fear what they can do to harm you anymore.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">St. John wrote in the Epistle for this morning, “By this we know love, that He laid down HIs life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers...Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth...whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart.” When your heart condemns you over your sin, over your lack of goodness, remember that Jesus is greater than what your heart tells you. He is greater than your guilt - He is greater than your sin - He is your Good Shepherd Who laid down His life and has taken it up for you. He makes you good, by giving to you of His goodness.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">So little children, having been thus freed and forgiven - having thus had your enemies conquered - love not in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px; text-indent: 36.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee; font-size: large;">&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></div>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-59171202295252917062012-04-25T18:29:00.000-07:002012-04-25T18:29:11.490-07:00Sermon for Easter 3 - St. Luke 24:36-49<br /><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;">What is so important about a piece of broiled fish that St. Luke thought it necessary to record it in his Gospel? The fish that would have been caught in the Sea of Galilee in the time of Jesus were nothing special. The main staple that was fished from the sea were sardines. The other was a fish known as the Barbel for the barbs at the corners of their mouths. So that is probably what the fish were. And the method of cooking them - St. Luke even records that. Broiling is, of course, nothing more than cooking something over/under direct heat - in this case, the fish. So broiled fish - no big deal - nothing very earth-shaking - sardines and bread - a basic meal among the people of that time. No doubt they had eaten that exact same meal in their lives thousands of times.&nbsp; <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And that is what the disciples were doing on that Sunday evening - the Sunday of the Resurrection – they were making dinner – having something to eat: some regular old broiled fish. What else, after all, was there really to do?</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Even in the midst of the most extraordinary events going on around us: the everyday, mundane things of life keep going on - they have to. Life happens - it doesn’t end when something extraordinary happens. We have to sleep, we have to get dressed, we have to go to work. We have to broil fish and have something to eat to feed our children, to keep ourselves alive. Such is life – day in and day out – it is the menial tasks – the mundane things – that make up so very much of our lives.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So it was for the disciples. Even after all that had happened - life had to go on. But into the menial tasks of the disciples’ lives - into their cowering together in that room, pondering the strange news they had heard, and making themselves dinner - suddenly Jesus was there.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Jesus Who they betrayed and deserted. Jesus Who was whipped and beaten. Jesus Who was tortured and nailed to a Roman cross. Jesus Who was dead and buried. Jesus Whose heart was pierced with grief and a Roman spear. There He was. And they are terrified for they think He is a spirit - a ghost - perhaps even seeking vengeance.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> But He tells them to look at His hands and feet - to feel His Body - that it is flesh and bone. And then the most menial of things becomes desperately important - a piece of broiled fish. “Have you any food here?” He asks them. And taking the piece of fish He ate it before them to calm their fear. The most menial of things reveals that Jesus is not a spirit - His Resurrection is very physical. He is there with them like He had been - in the flesh - risen just as He said. The extraordinary is revealed in the most ordinary.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Into the ordinary - the mundane - the menial things of your lives, Jesus comes too, and assures you that He is risen for you just as He said - that He is no spirit - no ghost, but your living Savior: true God but also true Man of flesh and bone Who comes to you to calm your fears.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In fact, Jesus comes in such menial, mundane ways, it is very easy for us to despise them. We want God to come to us in grand, flashy, amazing ways that knock us over. And there are churches and pastors that are more than happy to try and meet people’s sinful desires to have a ‘god’ like that.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>They might put on a flashy rock and roll floorshow, complete with videos, a light show, and dancers. They might tell you to look for miraculous healing or great gifts of wealth that show that you really are faithful and ‘god’ really is blessing you. They might tell you that if you aren’t getting these great blessings - that you are doing something wrong - not being faithful enough - or lacking something that you have to figure out, somehow, to get them.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But God does not reveal Himself to us in the grand, the flashy, and the amazing. He does not promise us health and wealth in this world. He reveals Himself in Suffering and in the Cross and, indeed, He promises us that we will have troubles and crosses to carry, too.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But it is precisely right in the midst of those troubles and those crosses - that He is present for and with you - He Who bore the Cross of all your sin. And it is precisely in the mundane, menial things of life that He is found: in the man who witnesses of Christ’s love while he is dying of heart disease - in the woman who joyfully changes her child’s diapers because of Christ living in her - in the teacher who works for next to nothing in a Christian school so that children might learn of Christ - in the woman who forgives the friend who hurt her because she believes in the forgiveness of her sin at the cross - in the soldier who quietly does his duty with honor because he recognizes the authority that God has placed him under.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In all these things: the ordinary, menial, mundane things of life - the joys, and the sorrows and the crosses - there is Jesus revealing Himself risen for you - forgiving, loving, comforting and calming you. He shows you in these things that He is risen - that He is living - that His forgiveness is for all the nations - it is for you. He gives dignity and joy to all the little things of your life - even grilling a piece of fish.</span></span></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><br /></span></div>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-47281139923618794732011-12-24T20:12:00.000-08:002011-12-24T20:12:22.917-08:00Christmas Eve Sermon St. Luke 2:1-14<div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Gloria Dei Lutheran Church of Chicago&nbsp;</span></b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">Christmas Eve Lessons &amp; Carols</span></b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">St. Luke 2:1-14</span></b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">24 December 2011</span></b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black; color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In the Holy Name of Jesus. Amen.</span></b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Exactly nine day ago, December 15, the combat operations in Iraq officially ended. In almost nine years, Operation Iraqi Freedom cost 4,486 U.S. troops killed, 32,226 U.S. troops wounded, perhaps more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed, and 1 trillion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money spent. And, whatever one might personally think of the conflict and of its cost, one thing we can be certain of: it did not bring peace.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is possible that the conflict has brought some measure of democracy to that country - that has yet to be seen. It is possible that it has brought some measure of stability to the region - that has yet to be demonstrated. It is possible that it has freed people from a repressive totalitarian ruler, although what the future government will be like is still largely unknown. But it did not bring peace. Bombs are still being set off in marketplaces - civilians are still being murdered - horrific violence is still an almost daily occurrence. Whatever good or evil it might might have wrought - it did not bring peace.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There was peace in <i>“those days”</i> of Caesar Augustus when he ordered a census of his Empire. It was the Roman Peace - the Pax Romana. It was a peace that came through conflict, war and conquest. Rome had conquered much of the known world, and so there was peace. It was an uneasy peace, to be sure - but it was peace. And the Caesars - the Emperors - like Augustus - were the peace makers - through conquest; and they were the peace keepers - through force. But it was peace nonetheless.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>War and conquest do sometimes bring a kind of peace for a little while - but never more than a fleeting peace - a temporary peace. But the Almighty God used this fleeting, temporary peace to do something new - something that would bring true Peace. To a little nondescript, backwater town called Bethlehem in an unimportant region of the Roman Empire called Judea to an insignificant Hebrew girl named Mary the LORD God sent the true Gift of Peace to mankind. The angels sang it to the shepherds, <i>“Glory in the highest places be to God, and PEACE among me with whom He is pleased!”</i></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Mankind does not know true peace apart from this Gift of God. We are, by nature, at war with God, in conflict with Him and under the conquest of sin. Sin is our emperor and our captor. We have belonged to sin, death and the devil from the time of the disobedience of our first parents in the Garden of Eden. And so we rage and war against our Creator with our false belief, our idolatry, our lust, our rebellion and our hatred. And that warring against God has eternal consequences. Because when you put yourself in opposition to God, you will always lose. And the only end is then to be our under the eternal conquest of the devil.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>But, thanks be to God, that, <i>“in those days,”</i> the LORD God did send the true Gift of Peace. <i>“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord.”</i> These words are so familiar to us that they can pass right over us without our even giving them much thought. But these words speak peace to our war - an end to our conflict.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> &nbsp; That Baby is the long awaited Christ of God - the Savior of the world - the bringing of true Peace - Peace between God and man - Peace between your Creator and you. That Peace is not of your making - it is only of His.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Later in this very chapter Simeon said to Mary in the Temple, <i>“a sword will pierce through your own soul too,”</i> the sword of grief as her son, her baby hung upon the cross making the Peace you could never accomplish, however hard you might try.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>“It is accomplished!</i>” He cried from the Cross. That was His cry of <i>“Mission Accomplished!”</i> But it wasn’t just bravado. He accomplished True Peace for you and all God’s righteous anger was stilled because it was poured out on Him.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>That is Christmas - although is sounds a lot like Good Friday. The two can never be separated. Christmas is God’s declaration of Peace in Jesus Christ alone for you through His miraculous conception and birth, sinless life, holy death and glorious resurrection.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Christmas, contrary to some sentimental opinions is not found in your hearts: it comes from outside of you and is found at the manger, at the cross, and at the empty tomb.&nbsp;</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>His declaration of Peace for you is found again tonight in His Holy Word of Holy Absolution, in Holy Baptism, in the Holy Supper. That is Peace - true Peace.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The world will always have its conflicts and wars, and sinful man will ever find new ways of hating and killing his neighbor. But in Jesus - the Babe of Bethlehem - you have Peace - true Peace.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And now may the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting and may the Peace of Christ prevail on earth.</span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Arial; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="background-color: black; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3; font-size: large;">In the Holy Name of Jesus. Amen.</span></b></span></div>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-14686051298915430702011-05-06T20:36:00.001-07:002011-05-06T20:36:31.660-07:00"That was long and I liked it."<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This past Thursday we had a somewhat different Chapel Service than we usually do at Gloria Dei Lutheran School of Chicago where I serve as Pastor. Usually, our school chapel is the Office of Matins, which lasts about one half hour. It consists of the Matins Liturgy, two hymns, sometimes a Psalm, the Te Deum Laudamus (or another Canticle), two readings and a brief homily.&nbsp;</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This last Thursday, we had a Service of Supplication and Prayer. It was somewhat different. The Service had four rather long readings, a longer homily, and three hymns. We also chanted Psalm 62 as well as one of the Canticles from </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Lutheran Service Book</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">. The Service was about one hour in length. After the Service, one of our 1st Grade young school children (not a member of our parish) said to me, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"That was long and I liked it."</span></i><br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i><br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"That was long and I liked it." </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What an interesting comment from a six or seven year old non-Lutheran little boy about a liturgical Service. I did not ask him what he liked about the Service. I do not really know if he could have articulated what it was about this </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"long"</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Service that he liked. But there was something there - something that resonated with this little boy - something that brought forth that comment.&nbsp;</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Children are not stupid. Children also naturally resonate with rite and ceremony. We so often treat children as they are stupid and that they cannot possibly </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"get anything"</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> from rite and ceremony. They can appreciate, understand, and yes, even </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"like"</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> complex things like a somewhat complex liturgical Service where there is standing, sitting, praying, chanting, listening, speaking and singing. They are, after all, creatures of rite and ceremony. Their entire lives are made up of rite and ceremony. This is true for all of us.&nbsp;</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When we treat children as if the only things they can understand and appreciate are those things that are based on entertainment and silliness, as if they are too stupid to understand that which is reverent and even sometimes complex, we do them and the Church a great disservice.</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br /><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"That was long and I liked it."</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> Yes it was and I am glad you did. Maybe, just maybe, there is hope. &nbsp;&nbsp;</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-50246111049363974802010-10-22T12:28:00.000-07:002010-10-22T12:28:45.632-07:00East Region Pastoral ConferenceThis past Tuesday and Wednesday was the Northern Illinois District East Region Pastoral Conference. The East Region comprises the parishes of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod in the City of the Chicago and the near suburbs. We met at the beautiful DeKoven Center in Racine, Wisconsin where we have met for the past six conferences.<br />The conference was excellent. First of all, the DeKoven Center is a beautiful retreat center with an excellent staff, great food and great facilities. Above all, they have a chapel to celebrate the Prayer Offices, private Confession and Absolution and the Holy Mass, which were done with care and reverence. Secondly, we had excellent speakers: Rev. Mason Beecroft and Rev. George Borghardt, who spoke on "Gospelling" the neighbor (youth and in general) through the holy things of God: the proclaimed Word, Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. Third, we had wonderful homilies delivered by Pastor Roger Gallup (Conference Chairman), Rev. Borghardt and District President Dan Gilbert. Fourth, we had wonderful conversation and consolation among the brothers who attended.<br />It is always a highly informative and Christ-centered conference. It is really what all Pastoral Conferences should be, and it makes me glad to be in the East Region of the Northern Illinois District.Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-7836541196811694482010-09-25T19:00:00.000-07:002011-02-26T19:55:31.181-08:00Sermon for Rite of Christian Burial of Mrs. Mary Schuh Fox<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The following is the sermon I preached at the funeral of my Great-Aunt, Mrs. Mary Schuh Fox on September 13</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">:</span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Adolph Berwyn Funeral Home, Berwyn, Illinois</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Christian Burial for Mary Schuh Fox</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The 15th Week after Trinity</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">13 September 2010&nbsp;</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">1 John 2:28</span></b></span></div><div style="color: #151515; font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In the Holy Name of Jesus. Amen.</span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.”</span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">On Wednesday, September 8th, at approximately 2:00 pm, our Lord called to Himself the soul of our sister in Christ, Mary Schuh Fox. The verse for the homily this morning is her Confirmation verse given to her by Pastor William Mueller at Golgotha Lutheran Church on April 5, 1925.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">St. John wrote these words in the first of his three epistles or letters to various churches to encourage them. He wanted them to be in this world, but not of this world. That is, he didn’t want them to get too attached to the things of this world, because they are transitory. As Jesus had once said, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> St. John was also very insistent that they continue to confess Jesus was God Incarnate - that is, in the flesh, against those who would deny that God truly became man in Jesus Christ. Indeed, if God did not become man in Jesus Christ to bear our sin upon Himself, in His flesh, then we are without hope.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">And so Pastor Mueller chose to give this verse of encouragement from St. John to young Mary Schuh when she was confirmed and began to receive her Lord’s Body and Blood for the forgiveness of her sin. It is a verse to encourage followers of Jesus (who John refers to as little children) to abide in Jesus so that they might have confidence and a good conscience before Him when He returns.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">First of all, it must be said, that Mary was, even at 98 years, 8 months and 8 days, a little child of God. She was born on December 31, 1911 and was baptized into God’s Holy Triune Name on February 17, 1912. There God did exactly what St. John says, He made her His </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“little child,”</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> in that washing of water with Word, giving to her life, forgiveness and salvation. She was crucified with Christ and brought forth as a new person. What made Mary and all Christians, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“little children”</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> is that little children are only </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“giveable to,”</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> they by their very nature, aren’t really able to give, they are only able to receive. That is the beauty of the Baptism of infants - it so clearly shows that we are helpless - nothing but giveable to - we are those who are on the receiving end of all of God’s gifts.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">So is was with Mary. Her childhood was not an easy one, having lost her mother at an early age, but those who took the responsibility for raising her and and her siblings (their father and aunt and uncle), saw to it that she received God’s gifts - that she be fed with His Word like a little child.&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">And so it was she was instructed and brought to Confirmation and the Supper of her Lord’s Body and Blood for her forgiveness, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“and now, little children, abide in him.”</span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Now she remained in Him through her Baptism, through the life-giving Word, through Jesus’ Body and Blood.&nbsp; On June 7, 1937 she was blessed with a loving husband in Arthur Fox, in a union that lasted until his death in 1992. And though they were not given the gift of children, they were blessed with nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews, whom they loved and served.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Finally, on September 8th, her Lord called home to Himself in heaven to await the Resurrection of all flesh at the end of all things. St. John also writes about that, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.”</span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Those who are in Christ, who have received Him and the gifts of life and forgiveness that he brings to them from His Cross, through Word and Water - through Body and Blood - can and do have confidence - that unassailable confidence that comes through Jesus Christ alone. Mary had such confidence. She was not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Apart from that confidence we have no hope. Apart from that confidence, we are nothing more than a bunch of random molecules bouncing around a cold, indifferent universe. Mary was not random molecules bouncing around a cold, indifferent universe. She was baptized in Christ. She knew Him and she was known by Him Who gave Himself for her. </span></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">As Mary lost her hearing, her mobility, and her sight, she became again, like a little child, only able to receive. She became helpless once again. And while it is hard to see someone become helpless, it is also a blessing. It forces us to remember that that all we have - all we are is from God, not from us. At the end we are powerless. Our only confidence in is God alone. </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> She was helpless - that is true - but she was helped, and now she has been healed - arrayed in the glorious robe of Christ’s Righteousness. We do not know what the future will bring, but only Christians can have the faith that it will be good - because it will all be a gift from our gracious Lord.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">She, even then, still received her Lord in His Body and Blood, in His Holy Word. He who became man for her, bore all of her weakness, her sickness, in His own flesh upon the cross, suffering all that had gone with her and all that has gone wrong with all of mankind because of our sin. The Father cares for the birds of the air and for the lilies of the field. So also He cared even more for Mary and so in His love finally brought her soul to Himself, to be with Art, to await the Resurrection of the dead, where her body will be raised, incorruptible, confident and unashamed, because she has been born above by her Lord.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">Yes, Mary desired to be reunited with Art and Elsie and John a long time ago and now she is - and more - she is united with her Lord in the unending worship of heaven, confident and unashamed.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In his poem about the brothers and disciples James and John, John Henry Newman penned these words, but I will apply them to Mary and Art, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">“Now they join hands once more above, before the Conquerors throne. Thus God grants prayer, but in His love, makes times and ways His own.”</span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #f3f3f3;">In the Holy Name of Jesus. Amen.</span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></div><div style="color: #151515; font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">&nbsp;&nbsp;</span></span></div></span>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-38424879590451124072010-09-16T22:11:00.000-07:002010-09-16T22:11:13.295-07:00Brother Pastors and Friends<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;">A great joy for me during these last eleven years since my Ordination, has been my affiliation with </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;">Northern Illinois Confessional Lutherans.</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"> I joined this </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;">Lutheran&nbsp;Confessions </span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;">study group right after I was ordained and have rarely missed a meeting in, lo, these many years. There has been close to a complete turn-over in the group since I began. Many of the fathers in Christ who I began with in NICL are no longer around. Some have retired and some have taken Calls elsewhere. Some have been translated to Glory. However, a new group of young brothers has come in, eager to study God's Holy and our Lutheran Symbols. For some pastors who do not have circuit meetings that are particularly strong on study, this may be the only opportunity they have to study </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;">The Lutheran Confessions</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: black;"> with brother pastors. I am blessed in that I have both and excellent circuit and NICL too. I am also blessed in that I can call these exceptional fathers and brothers in Christ friends</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">. &nbsp; </span>&nbsp;</span></span>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-41246473639179182882010-09-15T20:41:00.000-07:002010-09-15T20:41:26.584-07:00Those were the days<i>"Boy, the way Glenn Miller played,</i><br /><i>songs that made, 'The Hit Parade;'</i><br /><i>guys like us, we had it made.</i><br /><i>Those were the days."</i><br /><br />So began the 1970's television sitcom, <i>"All in the Family."</i> Archie and Edith set the theme of the show each and every week by pining after a simpler time when, <i>"girls were girls and men were men."</i> Living in the changing world of the 1970's, they longed for the familiar - the comfortable. That simple structure set up all the conflict - and thereby the comedy - in the program. Archie's worldview against the modern worldview.<br /><br />When I was ordained into the Office of the Holy Ministry 11 years ago, it did not take long before things became very turbulent in our Synod. The cause of confessional Lutheranism was under attack, at least that is the way I saw it. The Rev. Dr. Alvin Barry died two years after I was ordained. I attended his funeral. I then attended the 2001 Synodical Convention where the Rev. Dr. Gerald Kieschnik was elected President. Then 9-11 and the <i>"Prayer for America"</i> happened. I became active in fighting for <i>"the cause,"</i> whatever the cause was - fighting for God - to defend Him against something or someone - His enemies as I perceived them.<br /><br />I attended all the Symposiums at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne at the time. I attended the ACL Conferences. I attended the inaugural meeting of <i>"Consensus"</i> and became an original member. I signed <i>"That They May Be One"</i> as an original signatory. I went to a few secret meetings and dinners to make secret plans about what we were going to do about <i>"them."</i> I was never an upper level player in any of this - just a low level functionary. I should say that I do not regret those things.<br /><br />Dr. Kieschnik was elected twice more - I was present for both of his re-elections. I continued to fight for <i>"the cause."</i>&nbsp;And the thing about it was that I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the <i>"us against them."&nbsp;</i>I enjoyed the camaraderie of it all. It was comfortable. It was pleasurable. It made me feel like I was a part of something. I was part of something.&nbsp;It was the confessional worldview against the Synodical worldview. That simple structure set up all the conflict - and sometimes the comedy - of&nbsp;<i>"the cause."</i>&nbsp;My worldview against their worldview.<br /><br />But as the years went on I grew somewhat weary of it. I did not agree with the direction that Dr. Kieschnik was taking the Synod, but I just could not get excited about the <i>"us versus them"</i> anymore. I began to realize that I did not have to defend God against something or someone - against <i>"them."</i> God did not me to defend Him, I needed God to defend me. And I slowly dropped away from most of those old activities.<br /><br />The irony of Archie and Edith's song is that it is meant to show that the time after which they were pining really wasn't that great. It was a time of horrible poverty for many, war and suffering, diseases that ravaged people, and an almost complete lack of any social structure for the disabled, elderly and homeless. They had simply romanticized it into something it never really was.<br /><br />I don't think that I romanticize my beginning years of ministry.&nbsp;I do, however, miss those days now and then. Perhaps I do romanticize them a little bit. Like Archie Bunker missed the 1940's, because he remembered it as something better than it actually was, so I sometimes miss the <i>"us versus them,"</i>&nbsp;perhaps remembering it was something better than it actually was. It was who I was, to some extent. But not anymore. Archie could not stay in the 1940's. He had to move into the modern world - like it or not. And I could no longer justify staying in the <i>"us versus them"</i>&nbsp;world which I inhabited. I had to move on - like it or not.<br /><br />There are still things that go on in the Synod and in sister congregations that I find very disagreeable. But I will strive not to be disagreeable even when I disagree. I will try not to characterize those with whom I disagree as the enemy. I certainly might go back to the Symposia, but I won't be going back to those days. I couldn't now even if I wanted to. In the Body of Christ, where we are all members of Him, called into being by water and the Word and fed and forgiven by His Body and Blood, there can never be <i>"us versus them,"</i> there can only be <i>"us."</i><br /><br /><i>"Didn't need no 'Welfare State,'</i><br /><i>everybody pulled his weight.</i><br /><i>Gee, my old LaSalle ran great!</i><br /><i>Those were the days."&nbsp;</i>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-14845498709295412472010-09-02T09:22:00.000-07:002010-09-02T20:48:20.237-07:00Sermon for Trinity 14<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"><div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The 14th Sunday after Trinity</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">5 September 2010&nbsp;</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Copperplate; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">St. Luke 17:11-19</span></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 14.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><b></b></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: right;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">In the Holy Name of Jesus.&nbsp;</span></b></span></div><div style="color: #272727; font: 12.0px Georgia; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">“Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.”</span></span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">So how do you stand up against that list? If you say that none of them apply to you - you are a liar - plain and simple - and then you can add lying to the list as well.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Sexual immorality - does God’s Holy Law condemn you for your sexual sins of the present or the past? How about enmity and strife with others - does God’s Holy Law condemn you for your sinful fits of anger and your hatred of others? What about rivalries, dissension and division - does God’s Holy Law convict you of your pettiness - your divisiveness in the Body of Christ? And then there is jealousy, envy and being drunk - does God’s Holy Law condemn you in your jealous envy and your Godless drunken partying? God’s Law certainly should condemn you on all counts - it certainly does to me. That is what God’s Law is there to do - to show you your sin.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Those, St. Paul say, are the works of the flesh - that part of us which wars against God’s Holy Spirit - our sinful, fallen nature that is opposed to God and the things of God. But there is even more, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">“I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”&nbsp;</span></span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">And there you have it - plains and simple. Your sin puts you in Hell. That is what you are good for - that is what you are fit for - the rubbish heap - the fire. That is where your sin rightfully puts you. And for that sin you need to repent.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">But it is not just your sin that hurts you and separates you from God - it is also most certainly the sins of others against you that hurt you and threaten to separate you from God.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Listen again to what is written in Proverbs, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">“Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.”</span></span></span></i></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">Not only must you contend with your sin in this fallen world - but also the pain of those who have sinned against you - abused you. Those who have done wrong to you - those who have made you stumble. Have you been abused - physically, sexually or emotionally? Does the guilt and shame of that still haunt you? Have you been slandered, lied about or cheated? Have you been humiliated and hurt? The sins of others against you can also separate you from God - for your guilt and shame over what others have done can drive you from Him, and the devil uses the opportunity to try and convince you that you are worthless, damaged, unloved. For this you do not need to repent - indeed you cannot very well repent of someone else’s sin - but you do need to be blessed - to be healed - to be restored.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">And what is the answer to all of this? The answer to these problems is not moralism - indeed the answer to sin - our own and that of others against is - is never and can never be mere moralism - despite what popular, feel-good Christianity might say. We are told by many that we must, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">‘do better, try harder, be a better Christian, be a true disciple, have more faith and so on.’</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> They might even use the very words of Scripture from our text about the Fruits of the Spirit, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> And they will say, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">‘Get busy doing those things and you’ll get in good with God.’</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> But as hard as we try, as much as we might want to, we just keep right on sinning - hurting ourselves and abusing each other.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">No the answer is not moralism. Hear again what is written in Proverbs, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">“My son, be attentive to my words, incline your ears to my sayings... for they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.”</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> And hear again St. Paul’s words to the legalistic Galatian Christians, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">The answer to the guilt of our sin and the shame of our abuse is Christ-crucified and the life-giving and healing Word that He speaks and gives, which we receive by faith in Him alone.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">In the well known Holy Gospel for today we see what true faith is in the Samaritan: nothing more and nothing less than coming empty handed to Jesus and receiving His gifts, and recognizing and thanking Jesus and Him alone for them. And when we receive Jesus’ gifts in trust and with gratitude, then we can’t help but be joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled - because we are in Christ. That is what it means when it says that those are the Fruits of the Spirit. Before you can bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit, you first have to have the Spirit through the gift of Holy Baptism.&nbsp; &nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">So do St. Paul’s words about immorality, idolatry, anger, drunkenness apply to you? Yes they do. And the answer to that is to receive the good gifts of Jesus - repent and receive Him in His Word, in His Body and Blood, in the forgiveness and life that He offers you in these gifts and let Him take your sin and guilt away. Have you been abused, wronged, made to stumble by others? Yes you have. Then be blessed in the certainty that Christ has borne all those things with and for you. Receive Him in His Word, in His Body and Blood, in the blessings and life that He offers you in these gifts and let Him take your hurt and your shame away.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">“Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well,” </span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">is just another way of saying, </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">“Jesus has made you well.”</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> There is no healing or saving faith apart from Him. So on this day receive His gifts of healing and forgiveness again. And if you do not come and receive them regularly, recommit yourself to doing so again here today. Do not be like the nine who receive the gifts and then go away thankless - never to return. Receive them as those who know you need to receive them more and more - more Jesus - more healing - more life - more forgiveness.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">That is what God wants to give you in Jesus Christ, whose words are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.&nbsp;</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Georgia; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;">In the Holy Name of Jesus. &nbsp;</span></span></span></b></span></div></div><div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><br /></span></div></span>Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667467452310340020.post-42554362180233861962010-09-01T21:32:00.000-07:002010-09-01T21:36:40.667-07:00Another BlogThis is the first post of a new blog - my blog - for what it is worth. It will probably largely contain my sermons, and perhaps, eventually, other random thoughts. We will see where this leads me - if indeed it leads me anywhere at all - it is, after all, an experiment. The title of my blog is from a poem. It is well known, and I enjoy it, and it certainly describes the reality in which we all live as saint and sinner, "Ev'ry depth of good and ill." Peace.Pastor Andersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04675820871512485953noreply@blogger.com4